Apple is On the Hook for the $450m Settlement after Supreme Court Rejects Apple’s eBook Conspiracy Appeal

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Apple Inc.’s appeal regarding e-book price-fixing, effectively triggering a $450 million settlement payment. This move upholds a June 2015 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that Apple violated federal antitrust laws by conspiring with five major publishers.

Although Apple argued that the lower court’s ruling would stifle risk-taking and innovation, the Supreme Court let the decision stand. The original case, presided over by U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, determined that Apple played a "central role" in a scheme to undermine Amazon’s pricing dominance, raising e-book costs from $9.99 to as high as $14.99. The publishers involved in the conspiracy included Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.